Macworld Expo San Francisco 2005 Showtime Awards
January 14, 2005 - 12:15 EST   by Larry Angell - We're pleased to announce the MacMinute Showtime Awards for the 2005 Macworld Conference & Expo held in San Francisco this week. Below you'll find our editor's picks of 12 of the coolest, most interesting hardware and software products shown during the Mac extravaganza. To be considered for an award, products had to either have started shipping or have been demonstrated during the event. Among the winners are: Apple's Mac mini, Panic's Transmit 3, Better Energy Systems' Solio, Griffin's SmartDeck, and Bare Bones' TextWrangler 2.0.

Mac mini by Apple
Following months of rumors and years of pundit requests, Apple this week finally made the bold move of introducing its lowest-priced (and most compact) desktop Mac ever. Aimed at potential Windows switchers and current Mac users who want a second system, the Mac mini comes with either a 1.25GHz ($499) or 1.42GHz ($599) G4 processor, ATI Radeon 9200 graphic card, and either a 40GB or 80GB hard drive. Both models feature a slot-load Combo drive (DVD/CD-R), one FireWire 400 and two USB 2.0 ports, a DVI interface that also supports VGA, and Airport Extreme and Bluetooh support. Our only complaint is the fact that the mini can only hold up to 1GB or RAM and will take an act of God to upgrade the 2.5-inch hard drive.

Transmit 3 by Panic
Although it's still in beta, the upcoming major update to Panic's popular Transmit FTP application was certainly one of the most exciting things we saw at the show. From the new column view to the tabbed interface to iDisk support, Transmit 3.0 looks to be one of the most significant Mac OS X software updates of 2005. Panic also gets high marks for its free shirts they were giving away to customers at their booth. The shirts featured two of the most clever designs we've seen in a while.

iPod shuffle by Apple
We were a little underwhelmed at first with the much-rumored iPod shuffle, Apple's new ultra-compact digital audio player. But then, like all Apple products, we warmed up to it very quickly. We still, however, strongly believe the Mac mini should have been Apple CEO Steve Jobs' "one more thing" at his keynote on Tuesday--it should have a greater impact on Apple's future than any product released since the original iMac. The flash memory-based iPod shuffle is to be used on shuffle mode, which randomly selects songs from the user's music library or playlists, largely because the device lacks a screen/menu. It comes in sizes of 512MB (120 songs) for $99 and 1GB (240 songs) for $149. The new gadget is smaller and lighter than a pack of gum also doubles as a portable USB flash drive.

Solio by Better Energy Systems
Better Energy Systems' Solio is an innovative solar-powered battery charger for iPod and other mobile devices. The weather-proof device weighs only 5.8 ounces and can even be plugged into a wall outlet to charge its internal battery when no sun is available. With its fan blade design that allows it to achieve maximum solar area when in use and the ability to fold up compactly, the Solio easily makes our list--even if it's a little pricey at $119.

iWork '05 by Apple
While not the Microsoft Office replacement many were hoping for, the bundle of Keynote 2 and Pages is a huge step in the right direction for Apple. This bundle officially announces the beginning of the end for AppleWorks, and strengthens Apple's ability to offer pre-installed software that fulfills users' needs. Pages offers many innovations such as iPhoto integration and pre-designed themes that are fully customizable. Keynote 2 also raises the bar set by its 1.0 release by adding new features such as animated text and builds, presenter display, and Flash output. Add in the $79 price tag--Keynote 1.0 was $99 by itself--and you've got a great combination.

SmartDeck by Griffin Technology
Griffin engineer Chris Heric told us the SmartDeck was his baby. He should be a very proud father. The innovative cassette adapter allows users to control their iPod using the built in controls of their cassette player. By pressing fast-forward or rewind on your cassette player, your iPod will advance to the next or previous songs in the current playlist. The pause and stop buttons also do exactly what you would expect them to do. And if that wasn't enough, the SmartDeck offers the ability to control the iPod volume settings for optimal sound quality with your deck.

AirPlay FM transmitter for iPod by XtremeMac
While Griffin Technology unveiled a number of innovative products at the show, XtremeMac introduced what can only be called an iTrip killer. The company's new AirPlay FM transmitter works with all Dock Connector iPods and iPod minis, and is the only iPod-powered FM transmitter that works across the full FM frequency band without the need to install software. Plus, it's about half the size of the iTrip and includes a blue-backlit display so you know what frequency you're on. You can pick one up soon for $39.95.

naviPro eX by TEN Technology
TEN Technology announced three new naviPro eX wireless iPod remotes, and collectively they take the number six Showtime Award. The new models support all iPods with a Dock Connector port, and offer additional functions including navigation of playlists, albums and chapters, as well as shuffle and repeat modes. With this expanded functionality, along with the promise of controlling iPod photo slideshows down the road, they make a compelling buy.

TextWrangler 2.0 by Bare Bones Software
Bare Bones is known for its industry standard BBEdit text editor. But with TextWrangler 2.0, the company now has a very, very attractive alternative--a text editor for the rest of us. Oh, and did we mention it's now free? The new version introduces syntax coloring and function navigation for eight new languages, a new Documents Drawer and Navigation Bar, a new Shebang menu, SFTP support, enhanced multi-file search and replace, the ability to apply Text Factories created with BBEdit 8, significantly enhanced text transformation tools, improved Unicode support, and much more.

Delicious Library 1.1 by Delicious Monster Software
While version 1.1 is a good update, we're really giving Delicious Library a Showtime Award for the initial 1.0 release. Delicious Library is the greatest combination of fun and usefulness we've ever come across in a Mac application. The $39.95 software makes it mega-easy to create a digital library full of books, movies, music and video games. By scanning the barcodes on your media with an iSight, Delicious Library automatically imports all details and covers of your stuff. It also has integrated checkout to keep track of who has your media, and smart recommendations to help you find new things to add to your library. Basically, this is the coolest piece of software we've seen that didn't come from Apple.

BlueTrip by Griffin Technology
With it's slick implementation of Bluetooth audio, Griffin Technology's BlueTrip could very well make your iPod the ultimate home audio remote. BlueTrip consists of a Bluetooth transmitter powered by the iPod and a stylish Bluetooth receiver that connects to your stereo or home theater via mini-jack, RCA or optical audio cables. With its 30-foot range and high audio quality, we highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't already use AirPort Express with AirTunes.

EyeTV Wonder by El Gato
The EyeTV Wonder was born from a partnership between El Gato and ATI. It includes all of the standard EyeTV features, including: the ability to watch high-quality uncompressed TV, USB 2.0, 125 channel tuner, Fast forward, rewind, record on-demand, and live TV pausing. Through the Titan interface, it provides a search engine to help with your recording schedule, and features S-Video and Composite Video inputs. We recommend it because of it's uncompressed viewing feature, and the ease with which you can move it's MPEG-2 TV saves to DVD. We're also looking forward to pairing this device up with a Mac mini so we can easily share and burn recorded shows--something my TiVo can't currently do.

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